Grouchy Children, Grouchy Parents

Sigh. The kids were both quite difficult last night. Hubby and I were at a loss as to what to do with them, so we did the best we could with what we had. Kiddo flatly refused to eat; he wanted to play. We told him he had two options: A) eat his dinner and get to hang out with us in the living room, or B) not eat and go to his room where he could play until bedtime, but he was not going to be allowed to ask for anything else until the next day. He chose option B. Of course we would never actually not feed him. He played quietly in his room for nearly 2 hours. When it was 8PM, he decided he was hungry, so we let him have his dinner and then ushered him off to bed by 8:30PM. He complained a little, but otherwise washed his hands and brushed his teeth without issue. Little Bit ate some, but then decided her food was better off on the floor. She started off just tossing small bits and pieces of her dinner over the side of her high-chair, but then decided her entire plate should be upside-down on the hardwood. She picked her plate up, and with a gleam in her eye and a wicked 19-month-old grin (you know, the one that says, "I'm getting ready to do something I know you're not going to be happy with but I'm going to do it anyway...") held it out in mid-air. I'm lucky I was paying attention because I caught the plate full of food just as she dropped it. Well, you would have thought that I was trying to kill her with the way she screamed when I intercepted her plate-dropping fun. She squirmed and strained and hollered to be set free of the confines of her chair and was even more irritated when I refused to let her down. I tried, in vain, to get her to eat more, but it was over. It was also only 6:30PM at this point. I decided, since she was being so difficult, I would make a valiant attempt to put her to bed early. She seemed like she could really use the sleep; she was acting very tired. I asked her, "Would you like to go to bed now?" She responded with a whimpering, "Yesh." I released her from her "prison" and she virtually leaped into my arms, snuggled her little wet face in the crook of my neck, tossed her arms over my shoulders and squeezed. (Ah...how can I resist the strength of a baby's hug?) I squeezed back, patted her backside gently and said, "Bedtime, sweetie." She didn't argue. In fact, she didn't really argue at all, even when she realized I intended to abandon her in her bed for the evening. She fell asleep rather quickly, woke up once around 10PM, and then was asleep for the rest of the night. (I assume she was asleep for the rest of the night, only because if she did wake up, I certainly didn't hear her.) So both kids, I think, were just over-tired. That, and they're both struggling to fight a cold or something. Today is picture day at school. I labored for an hour or more last night trying to find the perfect outfits for Little Bit and Kiddo. I hope, when their turn in front of the camera comes, that they'll be as adorable as I intended them to be. I guess that's all. TTFN JMS